System and Subjectivity: Hiding Differences among Women Victims of Gender Violence

Abstract

Gender violence has become a public issue, so measures have been adopted from social institutions in order to prevent and treat gender violence, such as the Spanish Comprehensive Law 1/2004, thought from a gender perspective but implemented in a mainly patriarchal institution (Berns, 2001; Cubells, Calsamiglia and Albertín, 2008), that has strategies to resist changes. So, the system hides differences existing among women victims of gender violence, since the institution creates, reproduces and maintains stereotypes about women that guide the professionals' practices. The main effect is that the law is implemented in the same way in all cases, not attending to each woman's particular situation. It is a crucial point, since ignoring their specific psychosocial situation, their resilience, their violence process and the legal process, provoke that the legal system doesn't attend women's needs nor the law's goals.